小蓝视频 broadcaster Jody Vance has won a default civil judgment against a man who harassed her online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The B.C Supreme Court registrar filed the default judgment June 9, stating Richard Sean Oliver failed to respond to the notice of claim filed by Vance and Jesse Miller, a talk-show guest who alleged having experienced part of the harassment.
Oliver has been ordered to pay yet-to-be-assessed damages and costs to Vance and Miller, according to the registrar.
Vance and Miller filed the lawsuit in March 2023 weeks after Oliver, then 53 years old, pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was ordered not to contact Vance and others, including journalists Keith Baldrey and Marcella Bernardo.
Vancouver provincial court judge Peter LaPrairie called Oliver’s anonymous attacks on Vance "cowardly", "predatory" and unacceptable in a civilized society.
Oliver was sentence to a year of probation after sending Vance more than 100 abusive emails after disagreeing with her reporting in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
LaPrairie said the emails between March 2020 and September 2020 were misogynistic and became "aggressive and threatening in nature."
“They reference her family, and particularly her son. There are altered photos of Ms. Vance included in the emails,” the judge said, noting they were "disturbing."
“Mr. Oliver may have disagreed with media coverage of the COVID pandemic but there is no place in a civil society for misogynistic, threatening and demeaning emails of this nature,” said the judge.
Vance responded to Oliver three times, asking him to stop. He did not.
She then told her employer and eventually the police, who identified Oliver and told him to stop. Oliver did stop but he continued sending emails to Vance’s colleagues and guests.
Vance has a long history in sports broadcasting, and around the time of her encounter with Oliver had been a fill-in host for local radio station CKNW. She later became one-half of the CHEK TV talk show Steele and Vance, alongside former CKNW broadcaster Lynda Steele. The show ended in June 2024.
Vance’s more recent work includes broadcasting the Invictus Games in Vancouver and co-hosting the UnSpun podcast featuring political commentary.
—With files from Jeremy Hainsworth and Dustin Godfrey
